Rebuilding steering rack on gen2

[Average Joe]

About a month ago, some drunk guy on a tiny Toyota corolla smashed his car into my truck. Initially, it seemed he glided over the bumper and hit my driver-side front wheel, and the truck seemed to be mostly intact. It is only when I tried to steer it I realized I am screwed - the steering rack was completely disconnected from the steering wheel...





I got it to the body shop (I have no clue what kind of pain they went through trying to steer it into the garage via quite a narrow driveway). The guy told me that the steering rack is busted and needed replacement. No rebuild kits or anything, just a $2,050 option. The insurance guy came in, looked over, and later sent my a check for that rack and a bunch of other stuff.

So I asked them to go ahead, order the rack, replace it and go from there. They call me back and tell me that the part is on backorder at all local dealerships and there is no ETA. I did my own research, spamming a ton of ford dealers with contacts available online - same answer - back order and no ETA whatsoever.

Bodyshop guy called me and told me to either get truck out of his box or start paying storage fees... I got flatbed who was able to drop it at my driveway. But my driveway is about 400' uphill and curvy... So I started looking more into the actual damage...

The input shaft just POPPED OUT from the rack! There was no nut on the opposite side, no any kind of stopping ring that would keep the input shaft inside. My only explanation is that a big washer on the deeper end of the input shaft was either glued or welded in place...

Top-down view through the top of engine bay:



So I needed to fix it in place somehow to get up the hill. And I just... tied it to the rack...




Bill for the rental truck was growing, insurance guy did not return calls or emails, so I started looking for alternatives. And to my luck I found a wrecked rack on eBay with right side (so opposite from mine) damaged:



My plan is to replace damaged pieces on this rack above with parts from my rack, put it back and hope evefrything will just work

 

[Average Joe]

Pictures of internals of the rack I received:





I have yet to diagnose how the input shaft was supposed to stay inside... After all, the failure mode of EPS, in this case, is to shut down the motor and let the driver steer wheels directly, which would put a lot of pressure on the input shaft when turning right... Here is an example of what the intact input shaft looks like under the dust cover. Nothing I could see except that washer with a blueish ring around it to hold in place... And that blueish stuff appears to be some kind of glue... Between that glue and plastic pulley on the motor side, I am puzzled how that was ok to put on an advertised Baja truck...



To be continued... =)

 

[Shaggy]

I'd never go back to that body shop again. I had 2 things in back order after my fender bender. It took almost 3 months to get them. Body shop never once told me to get it out of there shop.

 

[CoronaRaptor]

Looks like you are on the right track with your rack. Keep us posted on the repairs.

 

[2slo4u]

Subbed. Love watching this all happen

 

[Average Joe]

I'd never go back to that body shop again. I had 2 things in back order after my fender bender. It took almost 3 months to get them. Body shop never once told me to get it out of there shop.

I certainly would not go there, but my truck was in the tow yard, without steering (so can't get it out myself) and all the other body shops I called said they are booked till the middle of February at least (at that time I did not know about back order on the steering rack).

 

[Average Joe]

Today's update:

My steering rack turned out to have a crack in the same place as the donor's one... Good news - it seems like after swapping belt and gear from my rack into the donor - it appears to work - it goes back and forth without any grinding or such, and the truck no longer complains about steering malfunction.

So now I need to find a cover. Gonna try my luck with ordering the steering rack from the regular F150 in hope that the cover will fit my rack. They look identical in pictures. If someone knows the difference between non-raptor and raptor steering racks - would love to know.

View attachment YouCut_20220122_164640143.small.mp4

On the left - the donor with the belt and black plastic gear swapped from my rack on the right.



As for my original concern of why the input shaft popped out - indeed it appears it is held by some kind of glue by the washer. Similar glue appears on sides of the rack, so in practice, it is impossible to service anything inside beyond the belt...





I do not know about you guys, but the rack is held in place with huge bolts that took quite a lot of effort to remove. Yet the input shaft is held inplace by the glue... To be fair - it seems the glue did not fail, aluminum did. Still, after that I certainly no longer have illusions about how strong this truck is made =(

 

[Average Joe]

And somewhat unrelated - when I removed the rack, I found that the knuckle is damaged - the outer tie rod balljoint also destroyed. I wonder if the steering knuckle is the same as on a regular F150 4WD?

 

[Average Joe]

Video of accidentView attachment 20211227_063109A.cut.mp4

 

[2slo4u]

Video of accidentView attachment 338241

Dang!!